Zetan wrote:I know this board hasn't been updated in over a year, but hopefully there's still someone keeping an eye on it.

The rules talk about dealing cards to determine things like initiative order, and having the highest card in "hand." Terms like "dealing" and "hand" imply that these cards are kept secret, but that makes it a lot harder to determine who has the highest card. Are initiative cards meant to stay hidden until discarded, or is your "hand" public knowledge?
Typically the way I've handled initiative is as follows:
For starters, I rank the suits differently (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs) than the rules call for, but that simply boils down to preference.
1) Deal the cards from the deck.
2) Call for each rank of card, starting with aces, but one rank at a time.
3) If there is more than one ace, activate by rank of suit.
So the only cards known will be the current rank that is activating.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all cards have been played.
The cards should remain hidden until they are played, but if more than one of a given rank has been dealt that's a little more difficult to do.
Kevin